Aboriginal Art And Its Impact On Aboriginal Society

The Australian Indigenous community hold extremely significant corrections to the land of Australia, of which they refer to as ‘Country.’ Indigenous people acquire deep meaning from the land, sea and the countless resources derived from them. This special relationship has formed for many centuries. To them ‘Country’ is paramount for overall wellbeing; the strong, significant, spiritual bonds embody their entire existence. Knowledge is continually passed down to create an unbroken connection of past,

Native American art is a profoundly expressive culture that has been a way of life for so many Native Americans. Native American art history has advanced over thousands of years and is composed of several idiosyncratic styles from the differentiating cultures of diverse Indian tribes. From Navajo to Hopi, each tribe has a particular history, which consists of many types of Native American arts including beadwork, jewelry, weaving, pottery, carvings, kachinas, masks, totem poles, and more. To truly understand Native American art, we will explore Native American art history, its subjects, and if Native American art has a spiritual connection to it.

During the early settlement of Australia, art was primarily used for documentary purposes by ammeters and pioneers (Splatt and McLellan 1986, 1). The arrival of trained European artists yielded a wave of Colonial oil paintings (Manton 1979, 58), however, these artists were “…trained to regard the landscapes of Europe as the norm.” and therefore their work could not accurately portray the Australian identity and atmosphere (Splatt and McLellan 1986, 1-2). These Colonial artists “…retained the smooth, anonymous surface established by academic procedures and practice.” (Manton 1979, 58). As such, their European eye and techniques distorted the Australian landscape into picturesque, “park-like green hills and bubbling streams bathed in a gentle light.” (Australian Government, 2009), often grounded “….in the middle distance…” (McCaughey 1979, 7). In a stark contrast, the landscapes produced by Heidelberg School artists were lauded for their portrayal of the Australian landscape “…experience(,) realized fully in paint.” (McCaughey 1979, 7). Frederick McCubbin’s Bush Study (1902) exemplifies the difference between the work of Colonial artists and those of the Heidelberg School with its use of Impressionist techniques becoming “…an essential and explicit part of the painting.” (Manton 1979, 58). Within this work, the bush is treated as a familiar abundance and brought “…forward, virtually right up on to the picture plane.” (ibid). The “…iridescent palette and roughened paint texture…” of the work immerses the viewer allowing them to gather a sense of the heat dulled, melancholic Australian bush landscape (ibid, 54-58). McCubbin’s work, as with other Heidelberg School paintings, depict “…a world which is 'natural', self-contained, self-sufficient and paradigmatically Australian.” (Hills 1991,

Australia is a young, modern country made up of a diverse and multicultural population, therefore, it’s difficult to say that it has a single national identity. This essay will examine what Australia’s identity may look like, specifically, through art.

The identity of Australia as a place comes from both its physical features and the atmosphere, which is often created by its physical appearance. Three artists who have depicted the Australian landscape in different styles are Arthur Streeton, John Olsen and Sally Morgan. Streeton’s works are in a realistic but lively style typical of the Heidelberg school. He was intent on recreating the light and warmth of the land. Olsen and Morgan’s works, on the other hand, offer more abstract interpretations of the land. During the 1960s and 1970s, Olsen captured the essence and the energy of the landscape with his bold and bright brushwork whilst Morgan’s work from the 1980s portrays Australia from an indigenous perspective, which she achieves through her use of Aboriginal symbolism and cultural imagery.

foreign audiences alike when it won best short film in both the Melbourne International Short

Over the past 230 years, Aboriginals have protested in many different ways to gain rights, which they believe they are deserving of. Through aims of what they wanted to achieve, the processes they went through brought them disappointment over the poor results of some actions and pleasure over the success of others. Over those years, very few periods of protest have been as revelational or effective as the protests occurring between 1938 and 1972. During this period many different groups of Aboriginals have fought for the common cause of being recognised as people rather than interferences caught in the midst of Australians expansion as a nation.

Throughout Australian history, Aboriginal people have been displaced and mistreated through the course of time, through the separation from their from kinship groups, land and the stolen generation. This has resulted in the connection to their dreaming lost, misconnection and loss of their sacred sites and traditional food from their land. As a consequence of the stolen generation, many aboriginal children were deprived of their parents, families, spirituality, language from their land and their cultural identity. All of these aspects contribute to the continuing effect of dispossession on Aboriginal spiritualities.

The traditional aboriginal art depicts places, events and dreaming ancestors, also incorporating actual events, whereas the temporary was only for initiation ceremonies and funerals. The aboriginal art opens up ways of communicating the close relationship between the ancestral beings and the laws, views, values, ceremonies and obligations of the people. They enable understanding and knowledge within a community and also partcially the outside world.

Aboriginal art in Australia is both beautiful and meaningful. According to Perkins, Hetti and West (2007) Aboriginal art allows for reconciliation of the events of the past two centuries’ that is used as inspiration for their work. Whilst researching the Indigenous cultural heritage of Mount Barker, Western Australia I came across a well know Noongar artist from the region, Charlie Colbung. Colbung was born in Mount Barker in 1970 and still resides in the South West region where he is an Indigenous health worker as well as an Indigenous programs officer for the Great Southern TAFE (Design and Art Australia, n.d.). There are two prominent themes in Aboriginal art consisting of both country such as the land and kinship, the people (Perkins, Hetti

Aboriginals or indigenous Australians are the native people of Australia. Aboriginals were nomadic people who came to Australia about 40,000 – 60,000 years ago from Southeast Asia. Religion is a great part of Aboriginal culture. The essay answers these questions: What do Aboriginals belief? What is a Kinship system? What is Dreaming and Dreamtime? What rituals does Aboriginals have?

All that exists in this world, as the Aboriginal Australians believe, originates from “The Dreaming”, a cosmology of existence which serves as the larger context or background against which Aboriginal people orient their lives. In a mystical time long ago, anthropomorphic and theriomorphic beings who emerged from the land, traveled across Australia manifesting permanent geographic features and all there is into being. The essence of these powerful beings remains within the subterranean realm and evidence of their existence, vestiges, are embedded in the Australian landscape. Vast regions of western and central parts of the Australian continent are covered by harsh, arid terrain. Geographically, this region includes grassy plains, sand hills,

The construction of Aboriginality in Australia has been achieved through a variety of processes, in various places and at various levels of society, giving rise to a complex interaction between the constructions. At the local level, the most striking line of tension may seem to lie between what Aboriginal people say about themselves and what others say about them. But crosscutting this is another field of tension between the ideas of Aboriginality (and non-Aboriginality) that people of all kinds construct and reproduce for themselves, and the constructions produced at the national level by the state in its various manifestations, the mass media, science, the arts and so on (Beckett, 1988).

Aborigines are believed to have lived in Australia for between 60,000 and 40,000 years, their early ancestors coming from South-East Asia. Precise population details for the period before European colonisation are unavailable, but it is estimated that there were between 300,000 and 1,000,000 Aborigines in Australia when European settlers first arrived in 1788.

Throughout history to present day, Australian culture has become the product of a distinct blend of established traditions and new influences. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the country’s original inhabitants, created the foundation for the land’s cultural traditions over 40,000 years ago. In addition, the rest of Australia’s people are migrants or descendants of migrants from various other countries who transported their own customs, beliefs, and value systems to the land. As a result, Australia’s culture has significantly broadened its social and cultural profile over the years, and still continues to evolve today.